Mohammed Rufai, the North-East Zonal Director of Highways, Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, has called on road contractors in the zone to double up their efforts ahead of the rainy season.
He made the call on Thursday in Bauchi during media tour of ongoing Federal Government road projects in the North-East, organised by the ministry.
He said the call was to ensure that contractors achieve the maximum they could before the rainy season.
According to him, whenever the rain comes, the activities of road contractors are normally slowed, especially with bridges and culvert construction.
He said when bridges and culverts were achieved in the dry season, other parts could be linked up during the rainy season.
Rufai said the tour was to enlighten the public on the activities of the ministry on road construction and also to monitor the level of work.
He said: “We have gone through three projects being executed by the Federal Government, Burga-Gwarangar-Sum project, Tundu Wuss-Kwanar project and Nigi-Fuska Mata project.
“As you have seen, the contractors are working, none of them is complaining of payment, because the Federal Government has paid them up to date.
“Road projects take long time but, so far, so good, I am satisfied with the quality of work being done by the contractors,” he said.
Charles Ezike, the Federal Controller of Works, Bauchi State, said that the ongoing road projects in the state were Burga-Gwarangar-Sum, 73.60 kilometres, Tundu Wuss-Kwanar, 47 kilometres and Nigi-Fuska Mata, 38 kilometres.
He said Datum Nigeria Ltd. was the contractor handling Tundu Wuss-Kwanar road, while Triacta Nigeria Limited was handling Burga-Gwarangar-Sum and Nigi-Fuska Mata roads.
He said the execution of the projects had recorded some level of progress, but blamed the earlier delay on rain.
The various project managers of the three construction companies told journalists that the projects had created reasonable number of direct and indirect employments for indigenes of the communities where the projects were ongoing.
